Parents on Long Island and Upstate New York are banding together to opt-out of Common Core testing, but the state is considering possible avenues of retaliation if they do.
Parents who do opt-out are being told they could be charged with ‘educational neglect’and have the powerful Child Protective Services descend upon them. They could also face having their child retained or kept from honors placement, according to the state attorney’s association. School districts could suffer their own repercussions.
When California pushed bill AB 484 through the assembly, a bill which would only delay the testing for one year, Arne Duncan notified them that he would cut off their federal aid. New York could look to meting out their own punishments with parents, teachers, and districts in the crosshairs.
Instead of listening to parents and teachers, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is looking for ways to force compliance.
In the you tube video below, you can hear Bob Aloise, State Ed’s PTA Coordinator, encouraging the use of child neglect charges and CPS as a weapon to force parents into having their child tested, testing that is hurting many children.
video via freedom outpost
The only thing California accomplished in AB 484 was to replace the standardized testing with a Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress (MAPP) for one year – only one year – and they drew this visceral reaction. The MAPP is an outstanding measure.
Getting back to New York. According to Huff Po, Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to be president and is lining up corporate sponsors, one of whom is Pearson, a company which is profiting enormously from Common Core. He might make it difficult for anti-Common Core advocates.
Check out the excerpt from The New York State Attorneys’ Association below. They claim they can go after districts and they are talking about hurting student’s opportunities for promotion and placement in honors:
Consequences for refusals and options for school districts
Contrary to the claims of some anti-testing advocates, there are potential consequences for students and districts when students fail to participate in state testing. First, in accordance with NCLB, New York State requires each district to have participation of at least 95 percent of a school as well as subgroups of students that are evaluated in the state’s accountability system. If a district does not reach this level of participation, it will not make “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP), and a district’s Title I funding will be affected. In addition, there may be intervention consequences for districts that fail to meet AYP.
Furthermore, districts’ policies and procedures for determining enrollment and promotion may be triggered. For example, a district’s procedures for promotion to the next grade may be based on a student’s level of achievement on a state assessment. In addition, districts may make determinations for enrollment into honors courses/programs or gifted and talented programs based on students’ performances on state assessments.
Finally, under newly adopted Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) plans, student achievement on state assessments will be a portion of a teacher’s performance evaluation. Specifically, student achievement comprises 40 percent of teacher and principal evaluations, with part of that percent dependent on student growth on state assessments or comparable measures. However, it is unknown whether student refusals to take any state assessments will be considered in this calculation under APPR. Without SED guidance on these open issues, districts face the unknown should a significant number of students refuse to participate in state assessments.
After these paragraphs, the association goes through a stress-inducing list of strategies the district might employ to bully parents into giving over their rights which the state insists they don’t have.
I have personally spoken with school administrators who told me that they are supposed to call the students who opt-out into the office, question them as to why they are opting out, and then tell them why they must not. One local high school administrator said the school was threatened with being placed on a list as a school in need of supervision if too many opted-out.
Hopefully any approach like these will have the opposite effect and strengthen parent resolve.
If you don’t think some of this will be nationwide, remember the parent in Maryland who questioned Common Core and was arrested? Read about him on this link.
Update: 18:00: The Sentinel fully supports opting-out and believes the state will have a firestorm if they try to retaliate.
NYSED announced today that they are taking ‘decisive’ action to improve the implementation of the standards. They plan to increase funding and job training, among other things. None of the actions listed will address the problems. The main problem goes well beyond the implementation. Read more at LI.com
http://www.independentsentinel.com/nys-parents-who-fight-common-core-face-government-retaliation/